What it's like
by Yugi2
Summary: A young girl discovers she's more than what she thought she was. And that others realize it too.


Author's Note:  
*cough* This is me first Harry Potter fic o_o; I've redone the first chapter a buncha times, but have decided to stick with my first draft. *cheers* All of that work for nothing! =d Just the first chapter will be in 1st person narrative (Ooh, I know something about writing =-o Hehe) so uh... yeah... and just to mention, I'm only 13-years-old people, so no silly flames por favor... silly, silly goosey flames will be replied to with a swift kick up teh anos! Why all the Spanish you ask? Well... why all the pumpkin juice?? NO ONE KNOWS! ._. However, CONSTRUTIVE criticism is more than welcomed. Criticize me! Criticize me!!!  
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'What it's like'  
Chapter 1: The Beginning  
Chapter rating: PG  
  
I wasn't /always/ the assertive, intelligent--if you may--person I am today... I would tell you that that is the most important thing I've ever learned. I would... if it wasn't for Hogwarts... ...Sound interesting? Listen to my story. You're a lucky muggle to be reading this, you know.  
  
My mother, father, and I had just moved from New York to England. It wasn't exactly something I was looking forward to doing... but it didn't exactly kill me either. I didn't have many friends... Rich girl automatically meant spoiled brat. No questions asked. Do I have to go any further with that? I had just recently turned 11 and my pet snake, Ceiphy, was still my best friend. I had Ceiphy for so many years... I almost felt like when I talked to her, she understood what I was saying, not what I meant... what I was... -saying-. Gosh, I treated that snake like it was a little kitten. Heh... goes to show how odd I really was. At least at the time I thought 'odd'... never did it come to my mind that I was a witch.  
  
The new house was large. Much larger than the stuffy, homey apartment back home (I still refer to it as 'home'. Talk about living in the past... *shrug*) in New York. 5 Privet Drive was the address. We didn't have any servants, the house wasn't -that- big. But it was a big step for a girl who had lived in apartments all her life. And as big as they were for apartments, they didn't have anything on a house. It was made of stone, and even had a garden! I tried to imagine the rent for an apartment with a large garden in New York, but the number was too large... it gave me a headache. My room was up the stairs, first room on the left. It was an improvement to my old one. I had put Ceiphy's cage at the foot of my bed, my nightstand next to the bed. Dressers and drawers up against the right-most wall, and my collection of stuffed animals in the closet. (Quite the place to show them off, eh?) The room was yellow, my favorite color then, and now. My room had many windows, the most in the house. It was nice to look up at the stars at night, and drift off to sleep. It was so peaceful.  
  
I was just starting to get used to the new accent and lifestyles in the United Kingdom. It rained a lot... a lot more than in America. But that didn't bother me, I quickly grew to love seeing the raindrops fall outside of my bedroom window. I kind of felt out of place sometimes, though. Maybe it was just my insecurities kicking in. God knows I have many.  
  
It still throws me off to spell favorite 'favourite' or say that the elevator is a 'lift'. It never occurred to me until then that my pants were also 'trousers', or that cancelled was canceled. I guess the things you first learn stay with you. But all in all, England wasn't that much different from the states. I even made my first friend, (Other than Ceiphy, of course) a boy across the street. He would play with me, he could probably tell I was very lonely. It was really sweet of him... he was 12--going on 13 very shortly--and I had only just turned 11.  
  
His parents had died in a car accident--or so he told me at the time--when he was still a baby. And he lived with his cousin Dudley and his aunt and uncle. He would often tell me about the horrors his guardians and cousin put him through, and I would listen to him with my mouth half open, wondering how Harry could live in such conditions. A tiny room under the stairs, that was Harry's room for his whole life until quite recently. His aunt and uncle had had a change of heart, Harry didn't tell me why. But frankly, I was too relieved for the boy than to ask questions.  
  
When my family and I had discovered the owl strutting around our postbox, I can't say I wasn't surprised... but I can't say that I was surprised either. Something about it all just felt normal, that an owl /should/ be outside in the middle of the day, tapping his... er... talons on the stone porch with a letter tied to a leg. My mother had tried to shoo it away, like it was a pigeon, but I had noticed the letter. I quickly grabbed it and opened it up. Just as I did so, the owl had flown away; I didn't see it again.  
  
Dear Ms. Coynei,  
  
Congratulations! You have been accepted into Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!  
  
I stopped reading then. I quickly looked up at my father and handed him the letter, "Uh... Witchcraft and Wizardry? What is this..." I was half scared out of my mind, and half delighted at the randomness of it all. My father had taken out his reading glasses by then and you could tell just by looking in eyes when they had read 'witchcraft'. Now my mother was in on it all too, she had taken out her own reading glasses and started skimming. We were all transfixed by the letter, molded to the porch. My parents had begun to argue... 'It's some silly prank!' or 'This is unreal'. But I was busy making up my own assumptions rather than listen to anymore. It was then that I did the only thing I knew to do, I went running to the only friend I had in the world.  
  
****  
  
Like clockwork I ran to number 4 Privet Drive. I knocked on the door furiously hard, and when a chubby boy answered the door, I was very much confused. Who was this boy? Perhaps Dudley? Oh well, doesn't matter right now, does it? "Is Harry home??" I asked.  
"Why do you want Harry?" he asked me, roughly.  
"Just please... please... I need to talk to him, now."  
It kept going like that... him avoiding getting Harry, and threatening to call his parents if I didn't leave.  
"Keep it up, and I'll call my mother!"  
"Just please let me talk to Harry!" I didn't care about him calling his parents, I knew that my voice was getting very loud.  
How loud¡¦ I didn't know. But thankfully it was loud enough, it was then that I saw him, Harry, at the top of the stairs. We made eye contact and I guess he could tell that I needed to talk to him. I immediately told Dudley to buzz off, and quickly walked away from the door. I didn't want to talk to that creep any longer than I had to. Dudley had seemed surprised, but took it as DUDLEY - 1, GIRL ASKING FOR HARRY - 0. I heard the door slam shut and footsteps walk down the hall, no doubt into the kitchen. (cough) Harry came out moments after, "What's wrong?" he asked me, concerned.  
  
I was so confused and lost; I just blurted everything out. About the owl at my door, and the letter. Harry, surprisingly, didn't look at all amazed, or dumbfounded. He just looked me in the eye; "You're a witch? Welcome to the club!" he patted me on the back and I looked at him, my face must have looked horribly stupid.  
"What are you saying..." I wanted to get confirmation on what I thought he just said.  
"I'm going back to Hogwarts this year, this will be my third year. I guess we'll be going to school together," he warmly smiled at me, like always.  
"You're a witch, too??"  
"Uh¡¦ Wizard..."  
"Well then... uh... What's it like at this 'Hog-wats'... er... 'Hog-warts'?"  
"It's amazing! I know you'll love it there," by then we both were sitting on the grass of his front yard, hidden from the windows behind the tall bushes.   
"If you say so... tell me more..."  
"It may take a while..."  
"I've got a while!"  
Harry told me everything that I asked to know about, all about Hogwarts. About muggles, and magic folk. About the Ministry of Magic, and of good and evil. I listened, afraid to even blink, afraid to miss anything. I wanted to know what world I had just been invited into. Everything came at me at once, but I never forget what he told me. It felt too.... unreal.... too good to be true. Something huge had just happened to boring, odd little me. Now magical little me? Too much... but more... I wanted to know more.  
  
We must have sat there for hours, Harry told me so much, until his throat clamped up, and my head started to hurt. I just kept looking into his brilliant green eyes, wondering if it was really true. That I was going to be going to Hogwarts this year. That I was going to be walking the streets of Diagon Alley the next day with him, Ron, and Hermione. I was wondering how everything would turn out, and how I was going to explain everything Harry had just told me to my parents...  
  
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Author's Note:  
Ooh, first chapter done! A short one! Heh heh. ^^; I just got really bored from staring at the white screen of notepad for the past twenty minutes. o_o;; My Green Day CD has stopped (Dookie, if you want to know), my inspiration has ended! Ahh! I promise more chapters soon! God knows I have nothing better to do now that my mom brought me to my grandmother's house. o_o;; *shudders* Oooh, can't wait until we meet Malfoy! Bwahhahaha! *runs off to watch Harry Potter DVD and watch the nice Malfoy scenes* Oh, and if you couldn't tell by now, Ms. Coynei is based on myself. :x Hehe. 


End file.
